Best food to feed your dog?
That is readily available.

I know this question has been answered before so apologies for making a new thread but I thought this would be easier!

My fiance and I have just adopted a 1-2 year old dog from a shelter. Small to medium size (not that small, but not that big either).

Anyway, I've owned dogs before and what I used to do was feed them dry Eukenuba food mixed with home cooked "wet" food that I made myself. Unfortunately, I am too busy to home make the dog food now, I've tried but find it way too time consuming and annoying!

So I want to ask, what is the best, healthiest thing to feed your dog that is readily available in supermarkets, pet stores, or veterinary clinics? I want my dog to have a good, healthy, appropriate diet!

I feed a mix of chicken frames and food I prepare for them, takes 2minutes to mix up a kg of regular mince and 2kg of mixed veggies with a couple raw eggs and two tins of tuna. I do it in batches and use the dough hook on my mixer to stir it together.

We have 9 border collies and my DH feeds them with a good quality brand of dry dog food and good bones from the butcher - rib bones with plenty of meat on them. He alternates with this food and every week, he gives them an egg each. Plenty of fresh clean water also.

Best diet for a dog is a premium brand kibble eg eukanuba, hills science diet, advance etc. Plus bones weekly for dental health and fresh water always available. No harm in giving kitchen scraps occasionally if you reduce that days kibble ration (obviously no onion etc) but wet food/scraps are not necessary and tinned food is a waste of money and not very good for your dog.

Like you, i used to feed a homemade food with kibble, but its too much work now i have a family and the dogs would eat heaps as they are large breeds. I was making food every second day, (as thats only as much as my biggest pot could handle), and thats a PITA.

I feed my dogs the 4Legs All natural dog roll from the pet fridge section at the supermarket. Ive tried all other "wet" foods on the market, inc exxy ones from the vet, and this is great for my dogs, and is the only one to not give them gas, which is a major benefit! And my dogs dont need much of it to keep thier weight good, but they sure do wish they got more. I also like thats its super firm, which means it doenst go mushy and make me want to gag And it doesnt smell bad like some dog foods!They get this at dinner, and get dry kibble for breakfast.I alternate brands of the dry dog food, which from the produce store as they sell in large 20kg bags which is convienient for 2 large dogs, (better value and fewer trips to supermarket)

I currently do a mix of premimum dry kibble in her toys, raw meaty bones (chicken wings or frames and beef necks) and kitchen scraps (plain cooked meat and left over veggies/carrot peelings etc). I also give her a tin of sardines/tuna with oil once a week. I'm just waiting on confirmation to see if she's allowed to continue with the raw food once we start training and if she is, I plan on introducing some offal mixed with veggies a few times a week too. I'll be making the batches up once a month and freezing them. Otherwise it will cooked mince and veg, sardines weekly and dry kibble.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of exclusive dry food diets - I don't like to feed anyone else in my family purely processed food, so why would it be different for my dog?

My dogs get fed Black Hawk kibble which is becoming more widely available through pet supply stores, as well as raw meaty bones. They have been eating Black Hawk for around 3 years, which is about as long as it's been made, and they do really well on it. If I run out and can't get any locally (I generally buy it at dog shows as it's cheaper there), they get Optimum from the supermarket. They also get natural yoghurt, but we get that for free as my husband works for the company who make it.

Okay for those of you who say you feed them raw, meaty bones, is this every day? If so, how many raw meaty bones a day? I.e. if you're feeding them chicken wings or frames, how many a day? My dog is relatively small!

So would you recommend a handful of healthy kibble and a raw chicken wing as a meal for my dog?

Also, would cooked beef mince and veggies be a good meal for dogs? Or cooked chicken mince for that matter?

ETA: I just read on the RSPCA site that too many raw bones can cause constipation in domestic dogs, and they suggest to limit to 1-2 raw bones a week! If this is the case, do you just feed dry kibble every single day and then a raw bone on 1 or 2 of the days? Or do you supplement the kibble with other meat, too?

Also, in regards to eating canned, commercial dog food every now and then, do you think it's ok if the ingredients are "safe"? I.e. I have a canned dog food from the supermarket and the ingredients are: "lamb, beef, chicken, pork, vegetables, gelling agents, vegetable fibre, vegetable oil, vitamins and minerals, flavours, colours. NO PRESERVATIVES ADDED." Do you think this is ok while also being supplemented with healthy kibble and raw bones every now and then?

Mine get a chicken drumstick each for breakfast, and kibble and yoghurt for dinner. But they are not small dogs. They also get one meal of raw lamb off cuts once a week, but I'm not pedantic about that. If I can't get a bag of lamb off cuts from the supermarket they don't get it. Raw bones keep their teeth clean. They all have good moving bowels.

We use Lauke Mills Barko/Uncle Albers. High quality, high calorie and great value for money. The premium foods are not worth the money although they will tell you they are. I would never feed PAL or anything like that though, too much carb fillers.

One of my dogs did really well on Uncle Albers, his coat looked the best it had ever looked. But none of them really liked it, which was a pity, because it was cheap and good. I've never tried Barko though.

When I used to subscribe to a dog show email group, I was surprised by how many of the top dogs show breeders feed Supercoat and Woofbix (Big W's home brand). And these people own amazing looking dogs....fit, healthy, beautiful coats etc.

I'm a lot less pedantic than I used to be about the "quality" of the food the dogs get.....dogs at the base level are scavengers. They should be bred to be good "do-ers" on not much food, and a dog that isn't working shouldn't need extreme nutrition.

I used to feed Great Barko and Uncle Albers - fantastic for Roo's coat.

I now feed raw - so a mix of kangaroo mince, chicken necks, lambs hearts, ox hearts, brains, kidneys, soup bones and livers. All from human food section of Coles - costs about $12 - $15 a week to feed her, I give her about 400grams per day

She looks fantastic on it, lots of energy and really lean and healthy. She has dry in her toys, tug a jug etc

For those of you who said that many commercial supermarket tinned food has too much carb fillers or preservatives, I looked up the ingredients of "My Dog" (which we used to feed our now 17 year old dog) and it has no carb fillers or preservatives, the main ingredients is just pure meat. I was actually surprised.

Okay so after much research, looking & advice from you guys we have decided to feed our dog Eukanuba dry food and a completely all natural "wet" dog food we found in the specialised pet refrigerated section of our local supermarket. We will supplement this diet with a couple of raw, meaty bones a week too